Today i got a Harley Benton overdrive pedal and a Boss ds-1 pedal, which i both bought online.
They work just fine, it’s everything i hoped for, but… When i add the loop, the tone gets sucked in somewhere and i can just barely hear the other effects.
Only solution is to crank them way up so they have some voice.
The loop in question is a Boss loop station.
The chain as it is now is this = Guitar => Distortion => Overdrive => Loop => amp.
Afaik, the loop sits on the end of the chain, right? (or am i wrong?).
Does anybody knows why this happens and how i can fix this?
Your chain sounds right. What amp have you got? I assume you’ve got a separate volume control on the looper for the loop itself?
How are you trying to use everything? Are you recording a “clean” loop and then using the OD/Dist ( you wouldn’t generally combine these pedals btw… I would use just one or the other) for a solo? A looper output can quickly get “mushy” if the different overdubs are not distinct… bear in mind the whole signal gets pushed to the amp so the amp itself plays a big part in the final sound.
A similar question was asked a few days back. If your amp does not have an FX loop on which to add the looper, yes at the end of the pedal chain will do nicely.
I’m using a Fender Champion 40 for this setup. And yes, the looper has it’s own volume controls. One for the loop, one for the recording. But it doesn’t matter which volume knob i turn, the result is the same.
I was playing around a bit. Since i got these two new shiny pedals, i thought, “well, what do they sound like together?”. And i must say, pretty nice, if you ask me.
Next thought: “what if i would create a clean loop and solo over that, with the dist/od?”.
With the resulting problem.
I don’t think that the amp has an extra connection for a separate loop, so i’d have to put it all in one chain.
We’ll probably be guessing unless you can do a recording of some sort (even just an audio one on your phone) so we can have a listen. My guess is you’re drowning out the loop as it’ll be quieter than your overdriven sound. Regardless of whether you have a fx loop (which would bypass the preamp section of your amp) it should be okay. Make sure you have your amp setting as clean as you can get it. You don’t want any dirt on the amp side if you’re feeding in the looper signal.
The looper has 2 volume controls. One for the loop volume, the other for the guitar when playing over the loop. These two can influence the output.
Add to that the level and volume controls on the other pedals, along with the volume on the amp, and it opened a whole new world for me.
I’m going to have so much fun with this setup. It’s the first time i had a go with these things, so this is all very exciting.
@Rossco01 combining the overdrive and the dist on a roland cube 30x (clean channel) really makes (to my ears at least) for a great sound. (on the fender it’s a different story, but that will take some more experimenting.)
There’s a distinct difference when using one or the other too, but for me, they work well together.
Thanks for all the suggestions and help guys, much appreciated!
Glad you got it all figured out and it’s sounding good. If those pedals sound good together then go for it…it’s just gain staging after all. You try adding in a little gain on the cube as well to see how that sounds. It’s all just about experimenting when it comes to pedals with no hard and fast rules.
